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Transcript of The botany of plastic

tree shelterssoil sievesmulch filmsirrigation pipefield liners"geomembranes" the first plastic came from plants cotton treated with nitric acid sources:chrisjordan.comPhilosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, Biological Sciences 2009, Vol. 364, No. 1526Jeffery L. Meikle, American Plastic: A Cultural History (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1995Robert Friedel, Pioneer Plastic: The Making and Selling of Celluoid (Madison: University of WisconsinPress, 1983)The gardening industry uses some 320 million pounds of plastic a year, according to a 2004 estimate from the Penn State University College of Agricultural Sciences in University Park, Pa., http://www.growinginchicago.com/2009/07/garden-plastics-signs-of-hope-but-long.html it was meant to copy natural materials agricultural uses of plastic does plastic have a place in organic production? based on minimal use of off-farm inputs and on management practices that restore, maintain and enhance ecological harmony. only about 1% of agricultural plastic is recycleda very low rate we have alternatives (and strategies)! THE BIG PLASTIC PROBLEM that remains true. most of the plastic produced today turns into disposable packaging 60,000 It was not important to these uses that plastic lasted a long time a fundamental mismatch between design and use: "one of the most ubiquitous and long-lasting recent changes to the surface of our planet" like horn, bone andresins that could beheated and molded but that were becomingmore and more scarce the number of plastic bags used in the U.S. every five seconds (source: chrisjordan.com) designing a material that lasts for hundreds, if not thousands, of years, for mostly disposable purposes, means that 60 years after plastic began to be mass produced, plastic debris now appears in every ecosystem, from the poles to the equator. it has been found in sea canyons 3,000 feet down and floating under polar ice floes. on Midway Island, one of the most remote in the Pacific, 40% of baby albatross birds die from ingesting plastic (chrisjordan.com) one piece of plastic swallowed by an albatrosswas traced to a WWII plane shot down 60 years earlier all the plastic ever made still exists. it will remain long after we die. plastic production continues to grow at a rate of about 9% a year. nearly as muchplastic was created in the last decade as inthe entire previous century

it accounts for about 8% of global oil production today plastic comes from fossilized plants: oil and gas plastic requires serious off-farm inputs! common uses of plastic in the garden according to a 2004 estimate, the gardening industry uses 320 million pounds of plastic every year avoid disposable plastic items like pots and plant tags. buy soil and fertilizer in bulk. for more durableplastic items like hoses, row covers and plastic hoop houses, choose recycled material or reuse. find alocal business that recycles gardening and horticultural supplies or will reuse plastic pots and tags.